Backdrop for a JC on the Silver Screen
The Kitchen Step (L) and Grand Street. Photos by Max Ryazansky By Marilyn Baer
M
ost people know Jersey City is one of the most diverse cities in the country. It’s a melting pot of cultures and artistic expression making it a perfect backdrop to set the scene of more than one award winning motion picture or Emmy worthy series.
Just last year residents were abuzz when Queen Latifah could be spotted filming scenes of the action-packed series The Equalizer which tells the story of ex-CIA operative Robyn McCall, a woman who helps desperate people in need of justice. Queen Latifah was born in Newark, grew up in East Orange, and went to school in Irvington. As an adult,
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she lived for a time in Jersey City’s Dixon Mills and had an office in a renovated firehouse on Morgan Street. Eagle eyed Jersey City residents spotted local destinations in the very first Equalizer episode, which aired after the Super Bowl on CBS. Queen Latifah and her onscreen daughter Delilah, played by Laya DeLeon Hayes, walk down the 500 block of Jersey Avenue. The duo stops near the parklet of Kitchen Step to window shop for a dress at a nearby boutique. Their home, which they share with her aunt Viola ‘Vi’
Marsette, played by Lorraine Toussaint, sits on Gifford Avenue.
On Location in JC Comic book villains have also come to town. The award-winning film Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role turned Jersey City into Gotham when the William J Brennan Courthouse on Newark Avenue was transformed into Wayne Hall. In 2018, extras from the area donned clown masks and face paint while holding signs at a faux rally by the courthouse steps lined with prop police cars and barricades.
Home on Gifford Avenue. Photo by Max Ryazansky
